Review—Tetris Worlds for the Nintendo Gamecube

Since I haven’t done many of my own threads recently, I would like to comment on one of my favorite Cube titles (and yes, I’ve had the game for four years), Tetirs Worlds.

Overview:

Being a Tetris nut in the past (hey, I even liked Tetrisphere), I was very enthused to pick this one up.

Tetris: Worlds, a 2-player puzzler from T-HQ, blows out all of its predecessors out of the water, featuring six game modes, which I have explained in detail below:

Tetris: This is your standardÃ‚Â Tetris play.Ã‚Â You play 15 levels, and keep playing that 15th level to the Tetris overfill the screen.

Cascade Tetris: This mode is for beginners, in a way that it isÃ‚Â MUCH easier to destroy lines.Ã‚Â Holes underneath a Tetris piece fall into place after a line is cleared, causing a cascade andÃ‚Â destroying one or more lines belowÃ‚Â them.

Square Tetris: Getting a square (multiple square pieces combined) getsÃ‚Â you more lines depleted quickly, but you can still play this game like Cascade Tetris.

Hot Line Tetris:Ã‚Â ColoredÃ‚Â lines appear on-screen.Ã‚Â You mustÃ‚Â destroy a line within that colored lineÃ‚Â to deplete the number of lines faster

Sticky Tetris: Broken Tetrisis line the bottomÃ‚Â of the screen, increasing harder and harder per level.Ã‚Â Clear the bottom of the row to get to the next level.

Fusion Tetris: This is the most frantic of the six.Ã‚Â You need to connectÃ‚Â the light one piece Tetrisis together so that they’re the same number or more than the number to the left.Ã‚Â Levels are similar to Sticky, and get increasingly more difficult each level.

Here’s a screenshot.Ã‚Â As you can see, the top right hand corner indicates the next Tetris piece, and the ones below them rotate to show you the next five in rotation.Ã‚Â The HoldÃ‚Â Box inÃ‚Â the upper-right hand corner is where you can save one, andÃ‚Â ONLY one Tetris piece.Ã‚Â SimplyÃ‚Â press the R buttonÃ‚Â to do so.Ã‚Â You can only do this once during a single piece.Ã‚Â Your level (from 1 to 15 and continuing at 15) and current rank (1st is the best) is displayed to the right.Ã‚Â TheÃ‚Â lines you must clear in that level and how much time you have to rank up are displayed to the right.Ã‚Â If you destroy theÃ‚Â number of lines in that levelÃ‚Â before time runs out, then there is a graphical change in the background, plus you rank up.Ã‚Â If you don’t clear all of the lines in the specified time limit, then you will go into “OVERTIME”.Ã‚Â You’ll still get to play, but after you clear all of the lines in that level, you won’t rank up or get a graphical background change.Ã‚Â You’ll just go to the next level.

Now, the premise of Tetris, if you haven’t played it, is simple: just clear the linesÃ‚Â horizontally with fitting pieces.Ã‚Â There must beÃ‚Â NO gap in the horizontal row to clear them.Ã‚Â The pieces are the same as past altercations, but the graphics look much neater, and play a role on your progression (more later).Ã‚Â People found the best strategy by Holding a Line piece in the Hold Box,Ã‚Â then connecting pieces up to four lines while leaving an open vertical line to insert the Line.Ã‚Â Ã‚Â Once that is achieved, then this is known as a Tetris.Ã‚Â Tetris linesÃ‚Â dwindle theÃ‚Â line count significantly faster than depleting a single line.

OnceÃ‚Â you pass level 15, the game continues atÃ‚Â level 15.Ã‚Â Ã‚Â Boy, I tell ya, the Tetris are so fast that it is so difficult to place pieces where you want them.

The six worlds you can play on are Deneb (Forest), Mira (Desert), Aludra (Water), Antares (Fire), Talitha (Sky), and Unukalhai (Ice).

2-player consists of a two smaller, separate screens, and you can play the same modes as the 1-player mode in 2-player.Ã‚Â Quite fun.

Strategies:

Plug up the holes you have made every chance you get.Ã‚Â Instead of pressing the Y button to zip a Tetris into place, take the time to position a piece within a hole underneath another piece

4 line Tetrisis are the way to go.Ã‚Â If you get multiple Tetrisis, then your lines will deplete much faster, earning you a rank up.

USEÃ‚Â THE X BUTTON!Ã‚Â If you are atÃ‚Â a very high level, then this is a useful technique.Ã‚Â If you continually press the X button while the Tetris piece is attached to another Tetris, it will continue to roll.Ã‚Â You can even move it around a bit and even manuever the piece to the place where you wanted to putÃ‚Â it!

The Y button is useful if you need to zip the Tetrisis down quickly to complete lines and get your rank up within the time limit.

Save theÃ‚Â Hold Box for a Line piece.Ã‚Â You will need it to silver a 4-line Tetris in need!

When your Tetrisis are accumulating wildly to the top, your best bet is just to play it save with simple one or two-lineÃ‚Â row depletions.Ã‚Â Then when you dwindle it a little, then you can place your Line piece appropriately for a four-line Tetris combo!

My Review:

Graphics:Ã‚Â 7/10-The graphics may not “WOW” you, but they are simple, clear, and easy to see.Ã‚Â There is rarely a time when the backdrop interferes with the color of a Tetris piece.Ã‚Â The most intesting touch was in the Water level.Ã‚Â When you rank up to like 4 or 5, the graphical backdrop delves you underwater.Ã‚Â It is such a cool, animated effect that I love!

Sound: 9/10-TheÃ‚Â retro techno funk is so nostalgic, making you just want to listen to the beats ALL DAY LONG!Ã‚Â Even more impressive is that you can listen to all of the songs at your leisure in the Options Menu.Ã‚Â Furthermore, the egolectic female voice says “Single” when you get one-line and “Tetris” when you get four, among several other things.Ã‚Â Just bonechilling!

Controls: 8/10-The controls are super-responsive when it comes to turning your pieces and sliding them into place.Ã‚Â The only problems I have iswhen the pieces on a higher difficulty move so fast that you can’t move it over to a spot in time.Ã‚Â Plus, it would be nice if you could flip between a piece from your Hold Box more than once within one piece.

Challenge: 9/10-The learning curve from one level to the next is ultra-impressive, andÃ‚Â the different game modes cater to different audiences (ex. Cascade Tetris is for beginners, standard TetrisÃ‚Â is for intermediate players, and Fusion Tetris is for expert players).Ã‚Â The continuous X Button press can be considered cheating, however, and can make a beginner player beat standard Tetris mode.Ã‚Â One minor flaw.

Fun Factor: 9/10-You will be entertained for hours on end, I BEG YOU!Ã‚Â The Tetris pieces are random and give you lots of freedomÃ‚Â in the open space.Ã‚Â Two players, however, is a little awkward.Ã‚Â The screen, thus, the Tetrisis are smaller, and it can be difficult to tell what piece you have in correspondence with the background, compared to the 1-player’s clearer background.

Overall: 9/10-This is probably heralded, in my opinion, as my top 5 favorite puzzle games of all time (only Zoocube for Cube, Wetrix for N64, and Polarium for DS would top it).Ã‚Â This is easily the best Tetris game to date that I haveÃ‚Â ever played.Ã‚Â This is the second best puzzler for Gamecube (aside from ZooCube, which is the most unique, addictive puzzler I’ve ever seen!), so I urge you toÃ‚Â buy it (probably only 10 bucks or so) and play it and play it again.Ã‚Â I promise you,Ã‚Â you’ll seeÃ‚Â your time go by in a heartbeat!